Method for displaying tomographic records of a patient and the corresponding CT systems and image processing systems are generally known. In almost every tomographic system, tomographic records are computed, with the correct scanning region often also being determined in advance with the aid of a tomogram, and subsequently three-dimensional image data records comprising a multiplicity of slice images on one plane or volume data records being calculated and slice images of the patient being output to be examined by the operator or for later diagnostic purposes. In order to generate such records, the patient is generally laid on a patient couch and aligned as far as possible with the system axis of the respective tomographic system in order to obtain images which change as little as possible in different scans.
The problem is that not all patients stay in an optimum still position, but some move in the time between being arranged by the staff and the actual recording, and are scanned in a different position. In general, slice images are now calculated on an axial plane, which is perpendicular to the system axis, and also output on this slice plane.
If the patient is not optimally placed, slice images are created which are difficult to interpret due to their spatial orientation relative to the patient or to individual body parts of the patient. For this reason, it is sometimes necessary to manually redefine the slice planes, the orientation of which is used to output new slice images based on already scanned three-dimensional image data records, in order to allow a better diagnostic evaluation.
Such a method with manual inputs to correct the slice image planes of the slice images output is very complex and is very often subject to subjective decisions by the staff, so that there is a relatively wide bandwidth with regard to the later output slice planes, which can lead to problems in particular when comparing equivalent representations at different times in the patient's history.